Raw (music magazine)

Last updated

Raw Magazine was a British music magazine, which was published from 1988 until 1996. Established to rival Kerrang! , Raw focused on rock music for most of its history.

Contents

Founding

Raw was founded in the summer of 1988 [1] by Dante Bonutto, Malcolm Dome, Mark Putterford and Steve McTaggart and photographer Tony Mottram drafted in from Metal Hammer. They had come together on Metal Hammer magazine having split from Kerrang! , where Bonutto had been deputy-editor. The collective feeling there had been that Kerrang! was becoming too narrowly focused on heavy metal and that Metal Hammer would allow them more scope to explore other areas of rock music. This quickly proved not to be the case and the idea for a new magazine was born, a title that would be a true rock magazine, featuring heavy metal acts but not dominated by them.

To that end they teamed up with marketing man Pete Winkleman and created Raw alongside Phil Alexander, Kirk Blows, Dave Dickson, Dave Ling, Sylvie Simmons, Maura Sutton and Paul Suter, most of whom had also worked on Kerrang! under the byline of `RAW` Rock Alive Worldwide.

The first issue went on sale on 31 August that year, as a fortnightly publication, featuring Ozzy Osbourne on the cover tattooing the RAW logo on himself, [1] photographed by Tony Mottram. RAW was based in London [1] and steadily grew to become a serious rival to the more established Kerrang!.

Acquisition by EMAP

But within the year, EMAP publications, having failed in their bid to take over Kerrang!, decided to acquire Raw instead. The idea, at that stage, remained that the new magazine could overcome the heavyweight Kerrang!, and that EMAP's money and publishing clout would allow the Raw team to achieve this. In the end, though, EMAP simply bought Kerrang! wholesale.

The original Raw magazine, the staff, writers and photographers, remained largely intact, with the addition of Liz Evans, until the end of 1989 when Dante Bonutto announced he was leaving. He had been poached as an A&R man by East West Records. The EMAP-appointed publishing director, David Hepworth, was assigned to find a new editor, and Dave Henderson was appointed.

Decline and discontinuation

The beginning of 1990 ushered in a new regime and Raw established itself as a viable alternative to Kerrang!, with a fresh, more contemporary editorial approach, championing bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, Hole, L7 and Alice in Chains, alongside the more traditional rock stable. However, as soon as Kerrang! became part of the EMAP stable of publications, Raw's survival, like Sounds, no longer mattered and despite changes of editor and editorial policy, making Raw a Britpop magazine in December 1995, among the proliferation of music magazines during the 1990s, eventually it folded. The magazine published its last issue on 13 March 1996. [2]

Television programme

In 1990, a weekly television programme named Raw Power was launched to accompany the magazine. It later changed its name to Noisy Mothers and was defunct in late 1995.

Related Research Articles

<i>Around the Fur</i> 1997 studio album by Deftones

Around the Fur is the second studio album by the American alternative metal band Deftones, released on October 28, 1997, by Maverick Records. The songs "My Own Summer " and "Be Quiet and Drive " were released as singles with accompanying music videos. The album was certified gold by the RIAA in 1999, and was later certified platinum in 2011.

<i>Astro-Creep: 2000</i> 1995 studio album by White Zombie

Astro-Creep: 2000 – Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head is the fourth and final studio album by American heavy metal band White Zombie, released on April 11, 1995, by Geffen Records. The album proved to be their most commercially successful recording, peaking at number six on the Billboard 200 with the aid of the popular hit singles "More Human than Human" and "Super-Charger Heaven". It was the band's only studio album to feature John Tempesta on drums.

<i>Kerrang!</i> British rock, punk and heavy metal music magazine

Kerrang! is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd. The magazine was named onomatopoeically after the sound of a "guitar being struck with force".

<i>Q</i> (magazine) British music magazine

Q was a popular music magazine. Originally published in print in the UK from 1986 to 2020, it was inactive from 2020 until 2023. In 2023, Q was revived as an online publication. It was founded in 1986 by broadcast journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were presenters of the BBC television music series The Old Grey Whistle Test. Q's final printed issue was published in July 2020, but began posting new articles to their website in 2023 before being fully relaunched in 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kerrang! Radio</span> British digital radio station

Kerrang! Radio is a British specialist digital rock music radio station related to Kerrang! magazine. It is owned and operated by Bauer and forms part of the Kiss Network.

<i>The More Things Change...</i> 1997 studio album by Machine Head

The More Things Change... is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Machine Head, released on March 25, 1997, through Roadrunner Records. It is the band's last release to feature original guitarist Logan Mader, and the first to feature drummer Dave McClain. The album's title alludes to the first part of the phrase, "The more things change, the more they stay the same"; the same phrase is mentioned during the chorus of "Struck a Nerve". The More Things Change... reached #138 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1997. By July 1998, it had sold 400,000 copies worldwide, with 115,000 copies sold in the United States. In 2020, it was named one of the 20 best metal albums of 1997 by Metal Hammer magazine.

<i>Metal Hammer</i> British metal music magazine

Metal Hammer is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. Metal Hammer features news, reviews and long-form articles covering both major and underground bands in heavy metal, as well as covering rock, punk, grunge and other alternative music genres.

<i>Sounds</i> (magazine) UK weekly music magazine (1970–1991)

Sounds was a UK weekly pop/rock music newspaper, published from 10 October 1970 to 6 April 1991. It was known for giving away posters in the centre of the paper and later for covering heavy metal and punk and Oi! music in its late 1970s–early 1980s heyday.

<i>Forest of Equilibrium</i> 1991 studio album by Cathedral

Forest of Equilibrium is the debut studio album by British metal band Cathedral, released on 14 October 1991 on Earache Records. It is considered a classic of its genre, doom metal. Forest of Equilibrium was notably inducted into Decibel magazine's Hall of Fame in February 2006 being the 12th inductee for the Decibel Hall of Fame.

Nick Logan is an English journalist, editor and publisher.

<i>Metal Forces</i> British music magazine

Metal Forces is a British publication founded in 1983 which promotes the music genres heavy metal and hard rock. Metal Forces was well known for its coverage of unsigned bands through its Demolition feature and championed the likes of Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, HellsBelles, Overkill, Death and Poison long before they had secured record deals. They are credited as contributing in this fashion to the success of the band Anacrusis. Dave Reynolds, a former writer for Metal Forces, has claimed that the magazine was the first to coin the terms thrash metal and death metal. A Metal Forces compiled vinyl album, Demolition – Scream Your Brains Out!, based on the magazine's popular Demolition column, was released in 1988 through Chain Reaction Records featuring Anacrusis, Atrophy, Hobbs' Angel of Death, Aftermath and the Chris Barnes fronted Leviathan. In addition to metal acts, the magazine also featured interviews with alternative rock acts such as Nirvana.

<i>Circus</i> (magazine) American rock music magazine, Gerald Rothberg founder owner editor publisher

Circus was a monthly American magazine devoted to rock music. It was published from October 1966 to May 2006. The magazine had a full-time editorial staff that were prolific in rock journalism, such as Paul Nelson, Judy Wieder, David Fricke, and Kurt Loder. It rivaled Rolling Stone in sales and surpassed Creem. In 1974, a sister publication was launched, titled Circus Raves, and by 1977 that venture had been merged into Circus magazine, making Circus a biweekly publication.

<i>Imprint</i> (Vision of Disorder album) 1998 studio album by Vision of Disorder

Imprint is the second studio album by American metal band Vision of Disorder, released on July 28, 1998, through Roadrunner Records. It was recorded between April 1 and April 19, 1998, with producer Dave Sardy. The album's title is a reference to a permanently scarring knife incident that happened to vocalist Tim Williams. The album's artwork is a hospital photo of William's injury, manipulated on the computer by guitarist Mike Kennedy.

<i>One Vice at a Time</i> 1982 studio album by Krokus

One Vice at a Time is the sixth studio album by the Swiss hard rock band Krokus, released in 1982 by Arista Records. It is notable for the strong influence of Australian hard rock band AC/DC on the songs and production, and was the first album to feature Mark Kohler on rhythm guitar. It includes a cover of the Guess Who's song "American Woman". The song "Long Stick Goes Boom" is used in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories on the fictional in-game radio station "V-Rock".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human Waste Project</span> American rock band

Human Waste Project was an American alternative metal band from Huntington Beach, California. It was formed in December 1993 by bassist Jeff Schartoff and guitarist Roman Marisak, and after going through several shifts in personnel, the band's lineup solidified in 1994 with Schartoff, drummer Scott Ellis, vocalist Aimee Echo and guitarist Mike Tempesta.

<i>We Have Come for Your Parents</i> 2000 studio album by Amen

We Have Come for Your Parents is the third studio album by American rock band Amen, released on October 31, 2000, through I Am Recordings and Virgin Records. The album was the band's second to be produced by Ross Robinson. The album was mixed and engineered by Mike Fraser at The Warehouse in Vancouver, BC. The title of the album refers to The Dead Boys album We Have Come for Your Children.

<i>The Face</i> (magazine) UK music, fashion and culture magazine

The Face is a British music, fashion, and culture monthly magazine originally published from 1980 to 2004, and relaunched in 2019.

Miocene, also typeset as {MIOCENE}, was an English alternative band from London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Sharman</span> Musical artist

Dave Sharman is an English guitarist, singer-songwriter, whose primary genre is rock and metal. He is also a multi-instrumentalist and record producer.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Raw (Rock Action Worldwide)". Magforum. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  2. Ashton, Robert (23 March 1996). "Emap folds Raw amid plans for new weekly" (PDF). Music Week : 4 via worldradiohistory.com.